URGENT COMMUNIQUE

Release no. 2

A Bloody Day in the Gaza Strip

Published @ 08.30 GMT (10.30 local time) 26 September

From the very early hours of Thursday, 26 September 1996, a state of extreme tension has prevailed in the Gaza Strip, as protests, sparked by the massacre of Palestinian civilians at the hands of the Israeli armed forces in the West Bank, erupted throughout the Gaza Strip. Incidents of protest and violence have been concentrated in areas close to Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and near crossroads controlled by Israeli military forces, especially in the areas of Kfar Dorom and Netsarim in the middle of the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, and around the Erez checkpoint on the northern border of the Gaza Strip with Israel.

A special team from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights is closely monitoring the events which are currently occurring all over the Gaza Strip. Our field workers have reported that Israeli soldiers are using excessive force and shooting randomly at demonstrating Palestinian civilians, in clashes the likes of which have not been seen since the redeployment of Israeli forces in May 1994.

According to information obtained by the Centre as of 08.30 GMT (10.30 local time), at least five Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli soldiers using live ammunition, including a 13-year-old girl, while the number of Palestinians wounded is over 100. Gaza’s hospitals are in a state of emergency, and the sirens of ambulances transporting more wounded from the areas where clashes are taking place can be heard racing through the streets.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights is calling upon the international community for immediate and urgent intervention to put an end to the Israeli massacres of Palestinian civilians and to stop the bloodshed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The Palestinian Centre holds the Israeli armed forces and the Israeli government totally responsible for the deterioration of the current situation and for the killing of Palestinian civilians in cold blood.

NOTE: The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights has set up a special operations room to monitor events as they unfold, and will continue to publish information about the developing situation.